INDUSTRY MINISTER IRRESPONSIBLE’

TORONTO — Federal Indus-
try, Trade and Commerce Min-
ister Alastair Gillespie’s recent
Smearing of Canadian labor has
brought sharp criticism from
Some of Canada’s top labor lead-
ers.

In a speech at the directors’
luncheon at the Canadian Na-
tional Exhibition, Gillespie
blamed labor for the high cost
of living. Playing with words the
minister said that if Canada’s

' Main customers put a 10% sur-

charge on Canadian exports to:

their markets, it would be con-
Sidered disastrous for Canada.

ret,” he said, “when Cana-
dian unions impose a higher cost
Structure on Canadian firms,
their actions are just as disas-

trous . . . such actions can ex-
_ port Canadian jobs to other
countries.

“Now is the time for restraint
and responsible action,” Gilles-

__ Pie declared.

He said of union leaders that

# _ “They must know that their fail-

ure to show . . . leadership is a
monumental sell-out of the Can-
adian future.” :

William Mahoney, Canadian
director of the United Steel-
workers of America replied that,
“Gillespie and his fellow Tru-
deaucrats are totally irrespon-

_ Sible and incompetent,” in trying
to cope with “Liberal-manufac-
tured inflation and unemploy-
Ment.”

Mahoney said he would dis-

“Gillespie blasts union bosses
Over pay’’ was the caption over
an article in the Toronto Star,

August 26, in ,which Alastair
Gillespie, federal industry min-
‘Aster, was reported as accusing
leaders of Canadian unions of
Selling out Canada’s future with
their stiff wage demands. And
Prime Minister Trudeau con-

tinues to harp on the same,

theme that wage rates are “the
Major villain” in the inflation
Picture.

Now the provincial premiers,
Meeting in St. John’s, Nfld. — all
ten of them — have joined the
Chorus. “Premiers back plan to
hold down wages” was the front
Page caption on the story from
St. John’s in the Hamilton Spec-
tater, August 22. Tory premier
Peter Lougheed of Alberta was
hawkish enough to propose that
the provinces should lead the
Way by limiting wage increases
Of their public employees “per-
haps to 914%.” :

But while federal and provin-
Clal capitalist politicians con-
tinue to provide a smokescreen
by blaming labor for inflation,

Monopoly interests continue to .

Taise prices at will, unhampered
Y any restrictions of any kind,
while labor has to negotiate and
Strike to recoup losses from the
Unrestricted profiteering of the
Corporate giants.
Bell Canada has gone on
Strike, and refuses to supply
Services to new homes, sub-
divisions and areas until it gets
of its demands for rate in-
Creases from the Canadian
Tansport Commission. But nei-
€r the Ontario Tories, nor the

uebec Liberals — in power in

© two large provinces where

Bell Canada’s operations are cen-

LABOR SCENE

BY BRUCE MAGNUSON -

cuss with his fellow Canadian
Labor Congress members whe-
ther meeting at all with Gilles-
pie and his cabinet colleagues
is worth it.

He called Gillespie’s attack “a
lot of sophistry and nonsense,”
and challenged the big business

spokesman to “come to grips.

with the facts.” Mahoney cited
International Nickel.Co. and the
Canadian steel industry as ex-
amples of corporations not suf-
fering from international com-
petition.
’ The - minister’s speech had
“nothing to do with reality,”
said Dennis McDermott, United
Auto Workers Canadian director.
Don Secord, president of the
Canadian Brotherhood of Rail-

Value of talks questioned

way Transport and General
Workers said Gillespie “‘hasn’t
got a clue about unions and how
they operate.”

From Stan Little, Canadian
Union of Public Employees, Gil-
lespie’s advice to labor prompt-
ed the observation: “I don’t see
anyone in the bond business or
industrialists or land speculators

_ Saying they’re going to take less

money because they’re good
citizens.”

It would be difficult to con-
tinue management, labor and
government discussions, said
David Archer, president of the
Ontario Federation of Labor, if
Gillespie has decided that labor
is, the culprit in the inflation
climb.

NEW YORK — The Ameri-
can National Coordinating
Centre in Solidarity with Chile
has asked U.S. Congress to
withhold all Overseas Private
Investment Corporation insur-
ance from General Motors if

the company reinvests in
Chile.
Overseas Private Invest-

ment Corporation insurance is
a government program using
taxpayers’ money to guaran-
tee the security of private in-
vestments made outside the

Ask GM quit Chile

country. The Chile Coordinat-
ing Centre, a coalition of re-
ligious, trade union and ad hoc
groups that support a return
to democracy in Chile, issued
a call’ June 14 for the with-
drawal-of the insurance from
any company investing in the
fascist-run country.

General Motors, which cut
off operations in Chile: under
the Allende Government, has
been involved in talks with
the military junta to reinvest
in the country.

A monopoly-government
conspiracy to freeze wages

tered — have shown the slight-
est inclination to demand that
Ottawa nationalize this black-
mailing monopoly, or to take
steps towards such action in the
areas under their jurisdiction.

Buying Power Undermined

The steel industry goes on its
merry way, raising prices, de-
spite the monopoly-created capi-
talist recession which has result-
ed in a drop in steel production
in 27 capitalist countries. There
is no such drop in steel produc-
tion in the socialist countries. In
no case are the steel workers
to blame, as they continue to
fall behind on account of rising
inflation, which undermines and
ruins their buying power.

The auto industry is perhaps
the best example of monopoly
profiteering. As the United Auto-
mobile Workers . Union has
pointed out very clearly, the
price differential on cars between
Canada and the U.S. is enough

to cover the cost of new capital >

investment in the Canadian part
of the industry several times
over. Yet, the prices continue to
rise regardless of the market
squeeze. They are even bold
enough to suggest that greater
parity between U.S. and Cana-
dian auto workers’ wages are
to blame for failure to expand
the industry in Canada, when
everybody knows that it is mo-
nopoly domination of the indus-
try that is to blame. Here is
something for federal industry
minister Gillespie to do some-
thing about, instead of blaming
workers who have no say what-
ever over trade policy, employ-

ment, balance of payments, capi-

tal flow or investment patterns
in the industry.

\

Even that federal lame-duck
Food Prices Review Board has
come out to blame the meat pro-
cessing industry for high meat

costs, but without proposing any |
‘solutions, or advocating any spe-

cific action to reverse the pro-
cess.

The main inflation villains in
Canda, as in all capitalist coun-
tries, are the multi-national cor-
porations and their monopoly
domination of the economy. Even

Senator George McGovern ad-~

mitted as much a few days ago.
Speaking to some 1,500 delegates
at the Graphic Arts International
Union Convention in Toronto, he
pointed to the fact that 200 cor-
porations control two-thirds of
U.S. industrial assets. These cor-
porations, he said, leave con-
sumers powerless to fight against
rising prices, and accused them
of being responsible for the pres-
ent economic stagnation.

Of course, the industrial work-
ing class, and all working people
are not powerless in doing some-
thing about the situation. What
is needed is a stepped-up strug-
gle for more wages and salaries
and to spike any effort to control
labors’ income, at the same time
as going on the offensive on the

political front to challenge the.

power of the corporations.
Ontario offers an opportunity

‘for doing this in the present elec-

tion by voting to send Commu-
nists and a large bloc of progres-
sives. to replace the capitalist
politicians at Queen’s Park. Only
tried and trusted spokesmen of
labor and the democratic forces
can be depended upon to pro-
mote a new policy to check mo-
nopoly control and, along with
it, growing unemployment and
inflation.

TRANSIT STRIKE
ENDS

MONTREAL — Public transit
began rolling again last week
after drivers agreed to accept a
new two-year contract with the
Montreal Urban Community

—Transit Commission.

The settlement between the
commission and the 3,400-mem-
ber Brotherhood of Bus Drivers,
Metro Operators and Allied Serv-
ices was reached at a meeting
where union members voted 960
to 18 in favor of the city’s new
offer.

At the end of the two-year
contract, transit drivers are to
receive a top wage of $6.90.

POST OFFICE TALKS
EXTENDED

OTTAWA — The Canadian
Union of Postal Workers and the
Post Office have agreed to a one-
week extension of their concilia-
tion talks, the Public Service
Staff Relations Board announced
on Aug. 29.

The extension means the three-
member board. will have until at
least Sept. 9 to try and resolve
a contract dispute between the
two sides. The previous date was
Sept. 2.

Under the Public Service Staff
Relations Act, which applies to
the postal workers, the union is
legally entitled to strike seven
days after the conciliation board
submits a report to the staff re-
lations board.

Earliest possible date for a
strike by the 22,000 postal work-
ers is Sept. 15.

LABOR BOARD
BACKS UNION

TORONTO — The Canada La-
bor Relations Board has ruled
that Bell Canada broke federal
law when it prohibited its em-
ployees from engaging in union
activities during non-paid breaks
in the company’s cafeterias.

The decision, released Aug. 28,
is regarded as a landmark in es-
tablishing the right of employees
to join unions while on company
property during non-working
hours.

The decisicn follows a com-
plaint by the Communication
Workers of Canada that Bell
management was breaching fed-
eral labor
workers the right to free asso-

laws guaranteeing

ciation in the union of their
choice. The union is attempting
to sign up 11,700 Bell craft and
service employees in Ontario and
Quebec, taking over from the
Canadian Telephone Employees
Association, a company union.

K-W TRANSIT
STRIKE SET

KITCHENER — Kitchener’s
214 transit workers have set a
strike deadline of Sept. 8, Bill
Mazmanian, president of Local
304 of the Canadian Brotherhood
ef Railway, Transport and Gen-
eral Workers, announced Aug.
29.

The transit workers’ contract
expired May 31 and they have

_been in a legal position to strike

since Aug. 10.

Wages are the main issue, with
the union seeking an increase
of $1.04 an houfr in two stages
of a one-year contract.

ZELLERS CHARGED WITH
SEX DISCRIMINATION

HAMILTON —A country-wide
chain store has hired women in-
stead of men to get two execu-
tives for the price of one, an
Ontario Human Rights Code in-
quiry has been told.

Janet Reddon, a former person-
nel manager with Zellers Ltd.
until last year, testified that she
received a written directive in-
structing staff to trim the execu-
tive payroll by replacing male
managers with women.

Mrs. Redden was testifying at
an inquiry into allegations that
the chain denied a 33-year-old
Hamilton man a job because of
his sex and marital status.

UNIONIZED OFFICE
WORKERS DOUBLED
IN FIVE YEARS
OTTAWA — The proportion of —
office workers covered by union
contracts has nearly doubled in
the last five years to about 33
per cent of the total number of
employees in that category, a
federal Labor Department survey
shows. i
Working Conditions in Cana-
dian Industry, a report based on
a 1974 survey of employers,
shows that the percentage of of-
fice workers covered by collec-
tive agreements last year had

climbed to 33% from the 1969 —

proportion of 19%. ee

“Management and labor must co-operate...
Vil give the orders and you co-operate by
« obeying them...”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 5, 1975—Page 5